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Help with potential backup solution
Hi
I have a client that is running some production critical software on 4 separate desktops, all different hardware but essentially all they require is a serial port and multi display graphics card.
There is currently no decent backup on these devices and the hardware is out of warranty.
I'm looking to implement some backup and redundancy so in the event of a hardware failure we can minimise the time to recover the systems.
My thought process is to replace all 4 machines with new hardware, get supplier next business day warranty for parts and install backup software on each should the OS get hit with anything nasty and require a rebuild.
I will also suggest buying a standby system to take over immediately should there be a hardware failure (unless it’s the hard drive)
I would like to backup each system every hour to a central backup server located onsite and from here have the capacity to restore an image of the backup to the standby desktop.
Is there any backup software you would recommend that could perform this? We currently use a datto as our go to backup but there solution requires a monthly fee that performs cloud backup (cloud backups are not required)
I'm thinking possibly Acronis or Veeam from what I've read but haven't made contact with their sales yet, Thought I would ask here to save me the pain of the usual sales process so when I do call I know exactly what product I want
Any help would be much appreciated
I have a client that is running some production critical software on 4 separate desktops, all different hardware but essentially all they require is a serial port and multi display graphics card.
There is currently no decent backup on these devices and the hardware is out of warranty.
I'm looking to implement some backup and redundancy so in the event of a hardware failure we can minimise the time to recover the systems.
My thought process is to replace all 4 machines with new hardware, get supplier next business day warranty for parts and install backup software on each should the OS get hit with anything nasty and require a rebuild.
I will also suggest buying a standby system to take over immediately should there be a hardware failure (unless it’s the hard drive)
I would like to backup each system every hour to a central backup server located onsite and from here have the capacity to restore an image of the backup to the standby desktop.
Is there any backup software you would recommend that could perform this? We currently use a datto as our go to backup but there solution requires a monthly fee that performs cloud backup (cloud backups are not required)
I'm thinking possibly Acronis or Veeam from what I've read but haven't made contact with their sales yet, Thought I would ask here to save me the pain of the usual sales process so when I do call I know exactly what product I want
Any help would be much appreciated
I use veeam. I'm sure you could use the free version to backup. I find it less expensive then datto, but I've never used datto personally, I'd love to know how you think of it.
ASKER
Thanks Scriptaddict
I should have mentioned i need an image backup of each machine as they run a particular Line of Business Application, might be a silly question as i I'm not familiar with Veeam catalogue but what version of Veeam are you using and does it backup to a local device that can be used to restore from?
Thanks
I should have mentioned i need an image backup of each machine as they run a particular Line of Business Application, might be a silly question as i I'm not familiar with Veeam catalogue but what version of Veeam are you using and does it backup to a local device that can be used to restore from?
Thanks
Ya they have a flavor that I use to backup a few of my Hyper-v Hosts. (don't tell on me)
It is the same concept as backing up a single desktop. You'd just need something on the network that it could use as the target for the backups. any NAS should work I would think.
I think I set it up so that the free veeam tool backed up on a schedule to the NAS.
Veeam is perhaps the most reliable backup vendor in the industry, you are safe with them.
I would setup a free veeam on each desktop, set it to backup everything, and point it at a nas and boom you are done.
that said remember much of a desktop is hardware specific. If you have drivers backed up for specific hardware there IS going to be problems if you attempt to load it into a new system. because it will attempt to use the drivers from the old dekstop to access the new desktop, and the changes in MB, chipsets, etc are likely to cause problems if it boots at all, unless the hardware is identical.
It is the same concept as backing up a single desktop. You'd just need something on the network that it could use as the target for the backups. any NAS should work I would think.
I think I set it up so that the free veeam tool backed up on a schedule to the NAS.
Veeam is perhaps the most reliable backup vendor in the industry, you are safe with them.
I would setup a free veeam on each desktop, set it to backup everything, and point it at a nas and boom you are done.
that said remember much of a desktop is hardware specific. If you have drivers backed up for specific hardware there IS going to be problems if you attempt to load it into a new system. because it will attempt to use the drivers from the old dekstop to access the new desktop, and the changes in MB, chipsets, etc are likely to cause problems if it boots at all, unless the hardware is identical.
ASKER
Thanks will check it out
I did have a client on the free Veeam a while back, from memory I believe it can only be run once per day so will most likely look to get the paid so I can backup hourly.
Plan is to restore to same hardware (not same system) if that makes sense. Will replace all current systems and have one spare to restore to. Don't want to be fighting driver incompatibility when the production line is down :)
Thanks
I did have a client on the free Veeam a while back, from memory I believe it can only be run once per day so will most likely look to get the paid so I can backup hourly.
Plan is to restore to same hardware (not same system) if that makes sense. Will replace all current systems and have one spare to restore to. Don't want to be fighting driver incompatibility when the production line is down :)
Thanks
When we are using paid we use Veeam backup and recovery 9.5.
when we are using the free we use:
Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows - Free Edition.
Would still be interested in your take on Datto. They call me all the time trying to get me to swap.
when we are using the free we use:
Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows - Free Edition.
Would still be interested in your take on Datto. They call me all the time trying to get me to swap.
ASKER
I like Datto, we only use the alto product at present which is an easier sell for customers, the price does jump a fair bit if you go for their other products.
The server being backed up runs a backup every hourly to a dedicated storage device (Alto - basically a Datto branded Intel NUC) and the alto uploads the changes to the cloud every 4 hours. You can set this up different but we are happy with these settings.
To get started we do an initial first backup , copy to a USB Hard disk and ship the Datto data centre.
Datto does a test restore daily of the cloud backup and sends a screenshot of the system booting to prove it is working up until that point
If we need to restore files/folder/image we do so from the local device, in the event of hardware failure we can run the server from the cloud backup (Thankfully never had to do this but is one of the main selling points for us) Datto support will help connect the cloud server to your network.
The product line up from alto provides a local device that can run a virtual instance of the server being backup up.
They provide 24/7 support
And all our customers can be manged via web portal
You can most likely do this with Veeam for cheaper but it is all done for you with Datto.
Just this time due to us not needing cloud backup I'm looking for a cheaper alternative.
The server being backed up runs a backup every hourly to a dedicated storage device (Alto - basically a Datto branded Intel NUC) and the alto uploads the changes to the cloud every 4 hours. You can set this up different but we are happy with these settings.
To get started we do an initial first backup , copy to a USB Hard disk and ship the Datto data centre.
Datto does a test restore daily of the cloud backup and sends a screenshot of the system booting to prove it is working up until that point
If we need to restore files/folder/image we do so from the local device, in the event of hardware failure we can run the server from the cloud backup (Thankfully never had to do this but is one of the main selling points for us) Datto support will help connect the cloud server to your network.
The product line up from alto provides a local device that can run a virtual instance of the server being backup up.
They provide 24/7 support
And all our customers can be manged via web portal
You can most likely do this with Veeam for cheaper but it is all done for you with Datto.
Just this time due to us not needing cloud backup I'm looking for a cheaper alternative.
StorageCraft ShadowProtect Desktop on all four systems. The software offers instant restore abilities to bring things back online quite quickly.
Or, restore to the stand-by desktop with ease.
Note, there would probably be an activation prompt when the restore completes.
Or, restore to the stand-by desktop with ease.
Note, there would probably be an activation prompt when the restore completes.
You can use Acronis Trueimage 2018. The 5 machine licence is about $100 and you can set the backup path to a network share. The next level up would be Acronis Backup Standard but that has a yearly subscription fee. The Trueimage should be enough especially if there aren't many changes to the machines.
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You have the basic desktop backups I personally like www.backblaze.com
If you only need the basic user documents you can use folder redirection to store things at your server. such as desktop,documents,download
Finally you can use a dropbox like tool. So you could setup all the folders you want backed up as cloud folders. I know you can do this one onedrive and link various folders to folders you are keeping in the cloud.
Those are the three that leap top mind. Were you considering any particular flavor?